Do Christian Actions Reveal Love?
So far I’ve focused on attitudes, but love expresses itself in actions as well—especially doing things for those in need. The General Social Survey asks two questions about involvement in charity: During the last twelve months, how often have you “given food or money to a homeless person” or “done volunteer work for a charity?” For simplicity, I identify how many respondents do it twice a year, figuring that anybody can do it once, but twice reflects more of a commitment. Forty-eight percent of Evangelical respondents had given food or money to the homeless twice or more in the previous year. This put them at the low end of the observed range, for 60% of the Black Protestants gave to the homeless as did slightly over half of Catholics and members of other religions. The Evangelical rate of giving is similar to the 44% of Mainline Protestants and religiously unaffiliated. With regard to volunteering for charities, Evangelical Christians did somewhat better. Mainline Protestants were the most likely to volunteer (43%), followed closely behind by Evangelicals (37%), members of other religions (35%), Catholics (33%), Black Protestants (31%), and, lastly, the religiously unaffiliated (25%).
The good news is that among Evangelicals, weekly attendees are the most likely to give to the homeless and volunteer for charities. As shown in Figure 7.3, 54% of Evangelicals who attend church every week gave food or money to the homeless at least twice in the previous year, compared with only 34% of the never-attending ones. With charitable volunteering, the difference is even more pronounced. Forty-nine percent of weekly attendees volunteered compared to only 13% of the never attending.
Figure 7.3: Have You Given to the Homeless or Volunteered for Charity
Twice or More in the Past Year? (Evangelical Christian Respondents)
Discussions of love often focus on large gestures, such as giving to the homeless or charities, but love also includes simple, everyday occurrences such as helping out friends or strangers. The General Social Survey asks several questions about everyday kindness: How often in the past year have you “looked after a person’s plants, mail, or pets while they were away”; “offered your seat on a bus or in a public place to a stranger who was standing”; or “carried a stranger’s belongings, like groceries, a suitcase, or shopping bag?” (Presumably this question about carrying a stranger’s belongings refers to helping them, not stealing from them). According to the survey, there are some differences in people’s answers associated with religion, but it varies by the measure. When it comes to looking after other people’s stuff, Mainline Protestants and Evangelicals were the most likely to do so (52% and 46% respectively). But with offering a seat to others or helping them carry their stuff, on the other hand, Evangelicals and Mainline Protestants scored low. Members of other religions are the most likely to do both (35% and 40% respectively). These numbers may reflect differences in opportunities. For example, it’s difficult to offer your seat to a stranger if you never take public transportation. (“Hey you, want to sit in my car?”), and so the variation to this question might reflect who is more likely to live in an urban setting as much as religious differences.
Among Evangelicals, those who rarely attend church were the least likely to do any of these everyday gestures. Those Evangelicals who attend church on at least a semi-regular basis were more likely to look after or carry people’s stuff and/or to offer them a seat on the bus.
Attitudes Toward Other Social Groups
In this section, I return to love-related attitudes, and I focus on Christians’ feelings toward people in various social groups, including those of a different social class, race, or sex.
How Do We Feel About the Rich and the Poor?
With social class, the Bible is abundantly clear about the need to assist the poor, and in fact, some religious traditions of Christianity have emphasized this as the primary message of the gospel.[1] Most Christians wouldn’t take it that far, but there’s no denying that the Bible emphasizes doing right by the poor. To paraphrase an old saying about the role of newspapers in society, the teachings of Christ lead us to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
I had some difficulty finding a suitable measure of economic justice, because most of the survey questions on this topic focused on specific policies and interventions. For example, a question might ask if respondents thought the U.S. government should spend more money on programs for the poor. Unfortunately, questions like this conflate a concern for the poor with attitudes toward government involvement in social programs. Finally, I settled on two rather general questions drawn from the 2006 Social Capital Community Study. They use a “feeling thermometer” that asks respondents to rate how they feel about a group from 1 to 100 (the higher the number the more favorable you feel toward it). Presumably, those people most concerned about the plight of the poor would have the warmest feelings toward them.
Figure 7.4 describes respondents’ feelings toward the poor as compared to the rich. As you can see, each of the four religious groups stated warmer feelings toward the poor than the rich, with Protestants and Catholics reporting the strongest preference for both the poor and the rich. In terms of the gap between poor and rich ratings, there wasn’t a lot of difference between groups. Protestants, for example, rated the poor at 71 and the rich at 60, making for an eleven-point difference. Members of other religions also had an eleven-point difference, and Catholics and the religiously unaffiliated had a thirteen-point difference.
Figure 7.4: Do You Have Favorable Feelings Toward Both Rich and Poor People?
Among Protestants, those who attended church services most frequently had the warmest feelings toward both the rich and the poor. The weekly attendees rated their feelings toward the poor at 74 points and toward the rich 63 points; whereas, those who rarely attended rated them at 66 and 55 points respectively. The gap between the rich and the poor remained steady, at 10 or 11 points, at each level of attendance.
A Disappointing Discovery About Race
Let’s turn from class to race. I only examine the attitudes of Whites in this category, even though race-related attitudes of racial minorities are equally interesting. But unfortunately, the data that I’m using do not have enough minority respondents for this type of analysis. The analyses that I present here constitute, in my opinion, bad news for Evangelical Christians, so I’m going to go into greater depth on this issue to give a richer understanding of it; specifically, I will look at three separate survey questions regarding racial attitudes.
The first question is a type of feeling thermometer. The General Social Survey asks respondents “In general, how warm or cool do you feel toward Whites, Blacks, Asians, and Hispanics,” and respondents answer on an eight-point scale.[2] Figure 7.5 plots the feelings of five different religious groups, and as shown, each group felt warmer toward Whites than toward Blacks, Asians, or Hispanics. In this sense, White Americans of any religious tradition as well as the religiously unaffiliated have plenty of room for improvement. There is some variation in feelings toward minorities, however, with members of other religions having the overall warmest feelings toward Blacks, Asians, and Hispanics. Catholics and the religiously unaffiliated had mid-range feelings toward racial minority groups, and the two Protestant groups, Evangelicals and Mainline Protestants, had the coolest feelings toward racial minorities.
Figure 7.5: In General, How Warm Do You Feel Toward This Racial/Ethnic Group? (White Respondents)
On a positive note, Evangelicals who attend church more often have warmer feelings toward minority groups than those who attend less often. Weekly attendees averaged ratings of 6.4 to 6.6 for these groups, and those who rarely attended or only attended yearly had ratings of 5.3 to 5.5.
The next race-related survey question that I examine comes from the 2007 Pew Religion and Public Life Study, and it asks respondents if they anticipate acting differently toward others solely on the basis of race. Specifically, would respondents be less likely to support a presidential candidate who was African-American or His
panic? Again, due to sample limitations I am limited to analyzing White respondents; and unfortunately, too many respondents, especially Christians, answered yes to this question. As shown in Figure 7.6, this type of bias is especially strong against Hispanic candidates. A full 19% of Protestant respondents would hold a Hispanic candidate’s ethnicity against them, as would 11% of Catholics and about 9% of members of other religions and the religiously unaffiliated. Similar proportions hold for Black candidates, albeit at substantially reduced levels. Seven percent of Protestants would be less likely to vote for a Black candidate, compared to 6% of Catholics and 3% of the religiously unaffiliated and members of other religions.
Among Protestants, with this question there is no clear relationship to church attendance. Those Protestants who rarely attend church and those who attend weekly were the most likely not to support a Hispanic candidate, and those who rarely attend or only attend on a yearly basis were the least likely for Black candidates. The absence of a clear pattern suggests that, unfortunately, this form of racial intolerance does not steadily diminish with church attendance.
The last race-related question is a classic in sociological research, and it asks how respondents would feel about “Having a close relative or family member marry a _____ person,” with the blank being filled in by Black, Asian-American, or Hispanic-American. Once again, I’m examining only White respondents due to sample-size limitations.[3] According to the survey, opposition to marrying a non-White person varies widely by religion, and, overall, Evangelicals were the most opposed to it. A full 43% of Evangelicals opposed a close relative marrying a Black person, and around 30% opposed marriages to an Asian or Hispanic person. Mainline Protestants and Jews had less prejudicial attitudes than Evangelicals, and Catholics had less than Mainline Protestants and Jews. The two groups who scored the best, however, were members of other, non-Jewish religions and the religiously unaffiliated. Relative to Evangelicals, these two non-Christian groups were less than half as likely to hold prejudicial attitudes regarding marriage. Still, even among these most-tolerant groups, almost 20% of them opposed marriages to Blacks—showing that as a society, we all have a long way to go.
Figure 7.6: Would You Be Less Likely to Support a
Black or Hispanic Presidential Candidate? (White Respondents Only)
Among Evangelicals, there is no consistent pattern in interracial marriage attitudes by attendance. For example, Evangelicals who never attend church are the most likely to oppose White/Black marriages, but monthly attendees most oppose White/Asian-American marriages. Again, we see no evidence of prejudicial attitudes decreasing with church attendance.
If there is any good news for Evangelicals, it’s that our racial attitudes, as well as everyone else’s, appear to have substantially improved over the past twenty years. Figure 7.7 plots responses to the opposemarriage question over the past twenty years, and as shown, opposition to interracial marriage has dropped substantially for all groups, including Evangelicals. In 1990, 77% of Evangelicals opposed marriage to an African-American, and this dropped to 50% in 2000, and it dropped even further, to 34%, in 2008. Is there still room to improve? Plenty, but it appears that society in general, including Evangelical Christians, is making progress on an almost yearly basis.[4]
Figure 7.7: Would You Oppose a Close Relative Marrying a Black/African-American Person?
(White Respondents Only)
Christians’ Attitudes Toward Gays
The final set of attitudes that I want to consider are those toward gay people, and here things get a bit more complicated. Whereas no Christian would, or at least ever should, argue that being Black or Asian or Hispanic is a sin, Christians vary in their attitudes toward the sexual behavior of gay people. Some Christians view it as morally wrong, others do not. The wide range in attitudes toward gay sex is evidenced by a General Social Survey question that asked if “sexual relationships between two adults of the same sex [are] wrong,” and the responses are plotted in Figure 7.8. As shown, about three out of four Evangelicals and Black Protestants think that gay sex is wrong, as do about half of Mainline Protestants and Catholics, a quarter of the religiously unaffiliated, and maybe 1 in 8 Jews. Furthermore, very few members of any religious group have uncertain attitudes toward gay sex, for the great majority of respondents view it as “always wrong” or “not wrong.” In other words, there’s not a lot of gray area for most people.
Reactions to homosexuality have sparked considerable controversy in the church, but regardless of attitudes toward the morality of gay sex, all Christians are called to love all people, and this would include gays. For some Christians, this falls under the heading of “loving the person but not their sin.” So the question for us to explore is whether Christians have warm, charitable attitudes toward gay people. The answer, unfortunately, is no, and the same could be said for many non-Christians. The Social Capital Community Study asked respondents if they had favorable feelings toward gays and lesbians. Keep in mind that this question asked about attitudes toward gay people, not about their sexual behavior. The range was from 0 to 100, with 100 being the highest level of favorable feelings toward gay people. No group scored higher than 60 on this 100-point scale. The religiously unaffiliated and members of other religions averaged a score of 58, Catholics 54, and Protestants only 44 points. Furthermore, Protestants’ feelings toward gay people do not become more favorable with church attendance. Weekly Protestant attendees have the most unfavorable feelings, scoring 40 points, but the next lowest group is those who never attend church, who score 46. In other words, there is not a clear, linear pattern between church attendance and feelings toward gays.
Figure 7.8: Are Sexual Relationships between Two Adults of the Same Sex Wrong?
Another measure of attitudes toward gays is with regard to their involvement in everyday, public life. Since its inception, the General Social Survey has asked respondents if an “openly gay man wanted to make a speech in your community, should he be allowed to?” Denying anyone the right of free speech seems particularly harsh, and yet some people feel this way toward gays. As shown on the right side of Figure 7.9, Evangelical Christians show relatively high levels of this form of intolerance. Currently a little over one-quarter of Evangelicals and Black Protestants would disallow a gay man from making a speech, compared to about 12% of Mainline Protestants and Catholics, 8% of the religiously unaffiliated, and 5% of Jewish respondents. On the positive side, the lines in Figure 7.9 all slope downward, indicating that members of all groups have become increasingly accepting of gays’ involvement in public life. For example, 52% of Evangelicals in the 1970s expressed disapproval of gays giving public speeches, compared to 45% in the 1980s, 30% in the 1990s, and 27% in the 2000s.
Yet again, Evangelicals’ acceptance of others who are different does not increase with church attendance. Among Evangelical respondents surveyed since 2000, 28% of those who never or rarely attended church disapproved of gays making speeches, compared to 24% of the yearly attendees, 21% of the monthly attendees, and at the highest level, 31% of the weekly attendees.
Figure 7.9: Should an Openly Gay Man *Not* Be Allowed to Make a Speech in Your Community?
Young People
So far this chapter has examined adults, but it’s worth asking some of the same questions about young people. In particular, do Christian youth love others? Sometimes I wonder if we Christian adults focus so much on keeping our youth from doing wrong things, such as sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll, that we lose sight of whether they are doing right things, such as loving others.
The first analysis of Christian youth pertains to their relationships with their parents. The data here come from the National Study of Youth and Religion (Wave 2), a national study of high schoolage kids.[5] The question asks the kids if they feel very close to their moms and dads. As it turns out, most of the kids feel close to their moms, and many feel close to their dads. Of the kids who affiliate with a religion, regardless of the religion, from 73 to 76% feel close to th
eir moms. This is more than the 63% of the religiously unaffiliated children. A majority of Evangelical, Mainline, and Catholic kids (57%–58%) feel close to their dads compared to 52% of Black Protestants and 48% of the religiously unaffiliated. Among Evangelical high school kids, feelings of parental closeness increased with church attendance, especially with weekly attendance. (This is one more reason for me to take my kids to church!)
Turning to the behavior of Christian youth, the National Youth and Religion Study asked questions about volunteering, donating money, and helping needy people. As shown in Figure 7.10, Mainline Protestant youth were the most likely (43%) to do organized volunteer work on at least an occasional basis, followed by Evangelical youth (39%). Evangelical youth were the most likely (54%) to donate at least $20 of their own money to an agency or organization, followed by Mainline Protestant youth (46%). When it comes to directly helping neighbors, friends, or strangers in need, Black Protestants (51%) and members of other religions (48%) were the most likely to do so. Youth with no religious affiliation were the least likely to be involved in all three charitable behaviors, whether volunteering, donating money, or directly helping others.
Figure 7.10: Do You Help Others in These Ways?
Among Evangelical youth, those who attended church more often were also the ones who were most likely to give their time and money to others. In fact, the weekly attendees were almost twice as likely to do these activities as the yearly attendees. Forty-five percent of the weekly attendees occasionally volunteered, compared to only 25% of the yearly attendees. Sixty-three percent of the weekly attendees gave $20 or more to charity, compared to only 35% of the yearly attendees. In terms of helping others directly, however, there was a slight negative trend, with 44% of the yearly attendees doing so but only 39% of the weekly attendees. It would be very difficult to guess why this is so, but statistically speaking, the trend is small enough that it might not have much significance.
Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites...and Other Lies You've Been Told Page 12